Is your conversion being negatively affected due to no on site reviews?

With more and more purchasing happening online, it only makes sense that more and more brand and retailer reviews are being found online as well. This means that the significance of online reviews is rising, and that they are one of the most relevant ways in which consumers both discover new brands, and make decisions about where to buy from.

Research from Fresh Relevance found that, in a survey of 2,000 UK consumers, 61% base their likelihood to purchase products on detailed reviews, and 56% look to product star ratings. The same research found that only 20% of the fashion retailers that were surveyed provided this information, despite the evidence that providing this info has a huge impact on potential customers. With online reviews making a difference to such a high percentage of consumers, it’s extremely important that brands are both supplying their customers with this data, and doing what they can to ensure they’re receiving reviews that are as positive as possible. 

The best way to ensure positive reviews from your consumers is to provide them with a positive experience. Communicating with customers following their purchase, and making their experience with you feel more personal is, according to a Narvar survey, what 60% of consumers want brands to do. The survey found that issues post-purchase, such as poor delivery communication, is the cause of 74.4% of all 1-star reviews on TrustPilot. This is backed up by MentionMe’s ‘Customer Advocacy in 2019 Report’, which found that 51% of respondents cited great customer service as a reason to refer a brand. As well as this, the report found that 49% said being trustworthy was a reason, while 42% said offering good discounts.

Though providing reviews on your website is shown to influence the likelihood of customers choosing to buy from your brand, it can also be seen that reviews on other sites make an impact too. GlobalWebIndex found that, with 47% of today’s internet users using an ad blocker, instead of ads, people use review sites and social media as their main way of discovering new brands. This information, alongside data from MentionMe’s ‘Customer Advocacy in 2019 Report’, which shows that 12% of survey respondents trust online reviews, while only 3% would trust a blogger or youtuber, and an even smaller 2% would trust a referral from a celebrity, we can see that review sites are one of the most influential ways in which consumers discover new brands, and make purchasing decisions. It is therefore essential that brands are working towards positive reviews, and making these easily accessible both on the main site and on other, well known, review websites. 

Contact our Client Services team on 01603 663093 or contact us here to find out how affinity can help with your online requirements